and methodology helps to shape the semantics of the language spoken in a discipline . For this reason , positivism , constructivism , and complex systems theory held a different cognitive understanding of basic IR concepts . They use , in other words , different semantics and taxonomies .
The scope of this section is twopronged : defining a taxonomy of IR rooted in the propositions of complex systems theory to improve interoperability between different epistemological communities , and outlining a formal grammar to set the basis for modeling the international system as a CAS . It is necessary to update IR ’ s taxonomy because the discipline has no standard language for analyzing the agent actions that construct the international system . 7 Actions that are driven by concepts , such as adaptation and coevolution , which are novel to IR and have yet to be systematically contextualized .
In addition , a well-defined taxonomy and grammar are also needed to standardize a language that is both capable of describing emergent phenomena and at the same time following a syntax suitable for computational modeling . As Holland ( 2013 ) suggests , a formal grammar for studying CASs should be composed of “ a set of generators ( e . g . a vocabulary ), and a set of operators for combining the generators into meaningful strings ( e . g . sentences )” ( Chapter 6 ). The purpose of the grammar is “ to generate a corpus ( set ) that describes the states ( sentences ) that can occur
Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
7 As pointed out in the first section , this is true for positivism , but only partially true for post-modern theories of IR . As it was shown , some constructivists take into account the interactions between agents . Indeed , some of the concepts that they use resembles others of complexity theory . Nevertheless , the two epistemological communities still have different semantics ( Holland , 2013 , Chapter 1 ).
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under the grammar ’ s rules ” ( Holland , 2013 , Chapter 6 ). Only with this formal grammar , Holland argues , it is possible to deconstruct and understand complex adaptive systems .
Through deconstruction , a system can be divided into Lego-like parts , also called building blocks , which serves as generators that can be put together to yield different emergent states of the system ( Mitchell , 2009 , p . 110 ). In the spirit of Descartes ’ ( 1637 ) treatise Discourse on the Method , the aim of deconstructing a system into building blocks is “ to divide all the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible , and as many as were required to solve them in the best way ” ( p . 17 ). In the study of CASs , the difficulties are the emergent properties , and the parts are the building blocks .
However , knowing what the parts of a system are is not enough to explain how a system behaves . The aggregate properties of the international system , such as migration and war , are “ not well-described by summing ” or averaging the acts and properties of single individuals ( Holland , 2013 , Chapter 6 ). This is because emergent behaviors do not arise from the proprieties of the building blocks , but instead from the iteration over time of adaptive interactions between agents ( Mitchell , 2009 , p . 6 ). Knowing the generators of a system is not enough to understand aggregate behavior . Instead , we need to know how the generators are combined together to yield emergent behaviors .